Tough Times in the Two Straits

The Islamabad talks of April 11–12 made no headway towards a viable solution to the West Asia war. And, the U.S. naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz since April 13 has only tightened the geopolitical knot.

While the world waited for the unravelling of the knot, during the ceasefire, a new and troubling dimension emerged. Days before the talks, former Iranian foreign minister and veteran diplomat Ali Akbar Velayati warned, “Today, the unified command of the Resistance front views Bab al-Mandeb as it does Hormuz.”

This veiled threat—implying that Iran’s Houthi allies in Yemen could disrupt traffic through another critical shipping corridor—has caused widespread concern. So far, little reassurance has followed.

History underscores the significance of these waterways. The Strait of Hormuz—just 39 kilometers wide at its narrowest point between Iran and Oman—derives its name from a Middle Persian rendering of Ahura Mazda, the Zoroastrian deity of wisdom and light. Others link it to the Kingdom of Hormuz, which emerged in the 11th century under the Kerman Seljuk Sultanate. It later became a client state of the 16th-century Portuguese Empire, whose eastern holdings stretched across ports such as Diu, Surat, Goa, and Cochin.

The Bab al-Mandeb Strait, only 26 kilometers wide at its narrowest, lies between Yemen on the Arabian Peninsula and Djibouti and Eritrea in the Horn of Africa. Its name— “Gate of Tears”—reflects its treacherous currents, reefs, and long history of maritime peril. Legend even speaks of an earthquake that once separated the landmasses, claiming many lives.

Today, these straits are not merely geographic features but lifelines of the global economy. The Strait of Hormuz carries about 20% of the world’s oil supply, making it the most critical energy chokepoint on the planet. Bab al-Mandeb, through which roughly 12% of global trade flows, is a vital link between the Red Sea and the Suez Canal, serving as a key artery for commerce between Asia and Europe.

One is already choking the global economy, and let us hope the world leaders do not let the other follow the same path. These routes are indispensable not only for major energy consumers like China and India but also for dozens of other countries. Countries in the Bab al-Mandeb region, including Sudan, Eritrea, and Yemen, play a role in sustaining its vast energy needs.

Yet these same channels of global sustenance are now under threat. Rising tensions risk turning them into flashpoints capable of disrupting entire economies.

Oil prices are already climbing, shipping insurance costs are surging, and supply chains are straining under uncertainty—pressures that inevitably fuel inflation and instability worldwide.

The two straits no longer merely divide land; they are beginning to divide a fragile global order.

If these waterways are choked by conflict, the consequences will not remain regional—they will ripple across continents, economies, and everyday lives.

The choice before the world is stark: allow strategic corridors to become instruments of coercion, or preserve them as shared lifelines for humanity.

Reason must prevail over brinkmanship. Cooperation over confrontation. For if these narrow passages close, the world may find that the cost of conflict is far wider than the straits themselves.

(The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Daily Tribune)